The Hubble constant

Abstract

Five methods of estimating distances have demonstrated internal reproducibility at the level of 5-20% rms accuracy. The best of these are the cepheid (and RR Lyrae), planetary nebulae, and surface-brightness fluctuation techniques. Luminosity-line width and Dn-σ methods are less accurate for an individual case but can be applied to large numbers of galaxies. The agreement is excellent between these five procedures. It is determined that Hubble constant H0 = 90 ± 11 km·s-1·Mpc-1 [1 parsec(pc) = 3.09 × 1016m]. It is difficult to reconcile this value with the preferred world model even in the low-density case. The standard model with Ω = 1 may be excluded unless there is something totally misunderstood about the foundation of the distance scale or the ages of stars.